"His decision to leave vague what he hopes to achieve in a renegotiation was also smart. It allows him to define what success is, and thus to present British voters with a new deal that he can claim as a triumph.

This newspaper would have preferred that Mr Cameron leave the timing of the referendum vague, too"

-How exactly is vagueness a good thing? Most businesses don't like it, Nobody in the UK or Europe like it. It reeks of political indecision and lack of moral courage. It feels like Mr Cameron is looking for a way out of a situation without having to own up to any responsibility. A reflection on his lack of leadership qualities, perhaps?

Serious consideration of Mr Cameron's proposals is unwarranted at the moment. Firstly, he must win the next General Election with an overall majority - he couldn't do that last time, when the Labour Party saddled itself with its least charismatic leader ever. Milliband minor may have shortcommings as a statesman, but he will surely do better than Brown, reducing Tory numbers even further.
If Mr Cameron is returned as the leader of a coalition or a minority government there will be no referrendum. If Labour is returned the referrendum idea will disappear like a morning mist.
Tory Europhobes will huff and puff, but they will no longer have any influence on government: although they might exact revenge on Mr Cameron by chosing a new leader.
Secondly, in the unlikely event that Mr Cameron wins a second term with a majority government he will enter into negotiations with fellow EU politicians who may, by then, be seriously concerned about their liabilities. Will Northern Europeans, Germany in particular, want to pick up the tabs for their Southern European colleagues through membership of a common currency, or will they seek a different solution; one that will result in a smaller but stronger single currency?
And will that leave a majority of us outside the Euro, or what?
In short, I dont think Mr Cameron, or anyone else, has the faintest idea where the EU is going. One thing is certain; you can tear up the rule book. So expect the unexpected.

The single dividing line between the EU and all the empires/states/unions that have preceded it in history is the question of consent - ie all the member states in the EU petitioned to join, so following on from this, if the British voting public answer "No" to PM Camerons proposed referendum then its game over, cheerio.
Its a long kick of a political football into touch, and carries within it the seeds of some very destructive results, including the probable collapse of the UK as presently constituted.
Hardly what Tories would wish for, then again its old advice to be careful what you wish for.
The EU has some serious democratic deficits, and a growing body of Eurocrats who badly need to be reined in, but this is not to say the entire edifice needs to be ripped down, however it does need to be made more accountable to every citizen, one of the most serious issues is that of State versus Centre, ie where lies the power?
This is the Federal Europe versus the Supermarket some British seem to wish for, perhaps an EU wide referendum on British membership would help?
In todays economic circumstances it might not be hard to convince a majority of all EU citizens that the whole idea was a bad one, lets go back to the 30s, they were fun times, and maybe hand most of Eastern Europe back to the Russians, Comecon worked so well after all.
Nostalgia is wonderful, however it wont cope with the troubles we are currently in.
Cameron could be the author of the Cockup of the Century, on the other hand he could be fiendishly clever, but on the face of it it looks like a self inflicted wound.

Be strong Britain! Don't let yourself be fooled by outsiders and business lobbies. In 1992 we rejected via referendum the European Economic Area agreement. Newspapers were saying that it would be the end of Switzerland. Even, the biggest industrial lobby group in Switzerland published a special study in 2002 saying that we have had a lost decade. Many prominent economists told as well the same. 20 years after rejecting the agreement, the story is very different. We did not have in fact a lost decade. We are in a much better position in Europe as never before. Even the EU wants to copy our internal federal system. Those Europhiles were so wrong that even today many changed completely their mind…

The EU will renegotiate with the UK anyway. More than 60% of the trade is made with EU countries. UK has the advantage to have the Sterling Pound. All doomsayers and Europhiles will be wrong again. The EU economy is in a so dire situation, that rejecting a free trade agreement with UK, will make many countries default automatically. Germany and France are not in a position to lose 10% of exports only because of resentments. And if they do have resentments, the slump would be enough to trigger another crisis. Only this time UK will be seen as safe haven!

What you are writing here, could be expressed more concisely.
Be strong Britain! If your economy will not implode soon in your hardheaded austerity experiment, you will be able to make hostages out of other Europeans who are trading with you. A huge elephant of EU economy will be scared of an UK mouse.
That is an example of quite aggressive thinking, I would say.

Which is the huge elephant? The UE economy is so dire that a crisis in Spain will end the precious EURO. The EU is to interconnected and week to be a serious global power… And what experiment? It makes me sick to read about people against austerity! Who is the one at the end who buys UK Gilts? The ordinary people? Or investors? So is not up to the government to make cuts, I mean the can still spend money freely, the problem is were are you going to get the money then…

I always asked myself on the purpose of UK to stay in the EU, since the UK£ is linked to the the US$. Also Sweden and other countries belonging to the EU use their own currency, but linked to the Euro. It is question of coherence, not merely of currency, so if UK wants to make its position clear, it is never too late.

Anyone has to honestly admit that the EU didn't perform well at all since the 2008 crisis started, from the disastrous intervention in the Greek crisis, piloted by Ms Merkel with the applause of all member States and of the powerless EU Commission.

The question of staying or not in the EU is not only British, also if Mr Cameron wants to make of it an own flag, but carefully waiting the result of the German vote, nor really the next British Parliament, as he declares.

The real question is that the actual EU is not anymore fit to the European needs.
The actual EU reached its end, now we need to go toward the real Federated States of Europe, with a unique Government and a real Lawmakers' Parliament, where all the actual States will have local limited power, coordinated and controlled from the Federal Government and Laws.
A control which needs to be real and constant, to avoid in future any “Greek” surprise.
Any make-up to the actual EU structure would only be a political fiction and a loss of time and money.

I agree on the referendum, but it has to be for all European citizens, with the real and clear question: Do you agree to create and join the Federated States of Europe? Yes/No.
Counting the votes per Country, there will be also the decision of which State want stay “in” or “out” the Federation.

@ Sanmartinian:
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(In response to an earlier comment of yours further below in one of those collapsible cages:)
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First, as I've told you earlier, I'm not going to ask you for permission when and where to post.
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Second, keep me kindly out of your conspiracy theories ("everybody disagreeing with me is a paid agent") and don't think I'm impressed by the routine insults/condescension you have for everybody not sharing your point of view ("stupid"). Since politeness demands to respect age, I will not return them in kind.
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Third, I'm posting under ONE monicker only and have left no one in doubt who I am. As usual, your sensational findings are yesterday's news. It's sadly comical that you now seem to think everybody disagreeing with you is one person in real life.
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And finally, on the issue: you were talking about PRESENT data, not three centuries of migration, but gave the false impression that Britain was experiencing net emigration (and Portugal net immigration), when the opposite is true. On balance, people are leaving Portugal because times are bad. And they are going to countries such as Britain, where prospects are still a lot better.

The leading party of the UK ruling coalition, the Conservatives, definitely are burning with a mission: to reduce governmental part of contemporary society using dirty politics based mostly on wishful thinking and bold lies. For that they introduced austerity during the contemporary Great Recession against everything what we learned from similarly terrifying Great Depression. How did that work out for you guys? Worse than you expected? I thought so.

Now they are turning their attention to the rest of Europe. The idea is that against the functioning of the famous integrated governmental/business machines in economies of Japan, the USA and China we will put up tinkering in our small backyards of each separate European country. The creative juices will magically grow up in our cute little gardens, and beat the heavy industrialized shiny competition in wooing the markets.

Good luck with that. I love the jokes of my friends Britons. I have no illusions though. The era of the steam engine ended long time ago (starting in the UK the global warming headache for the whole world, by the way). Today's innovation is expensive, is difficult to do, and to protect. Let the Britons burn with passion if they wish. Let them leave the EU if this is their decision. In a surgery you remove the damaged flesh so the whole continent can survive and prosper.

A federal Europe is coming. It will not build on existing federal constitutions, like one of the three: Canada´s, Australia´s or USA´s. It will be atleast 2.000 pages and will be difficult to make sense out of. So the incentive for the UK to exit will be greater when Europe goes federal. A two tier union might emerge, with the outer fringe existing of more nations and much larger population than the present (which includes just Norway, Iceland, Lichtenstein and practically also Switzerland). It is quite conceivable, even highly probable, that Denmark and Sweden would follow the UK to the outer fringe. Neighbours in the east and south might also become a part of an outer fringe. Europe desperately needs the solar power of North-Africa to satisfy it´s energy needs, if it is going to honour its own declared obligations to decrease its generation of CO2 into the atmosphere. It is always difficult to forsee the future. The future of the union of European and neighbouring countries is especially difficult to forsee. Let´s atleast hope, that a total breake up of a European union will not take place with the almost inevitable unrest which would follow.

absolutely!!
And Perfidious to boot !
Incidentally - Europe is lucky that they are not part of the Euro. If they had been - Europe would be a disaster.
There, they have contributed something, besides saving some for that tragedy in Afghanistan and Libya.
Heck - try and be grateful please.

Just 42 British lives sacrificed in the Berlin Air Lift to keep Berliners from starving; a complete refounding of the German Trade Union movement in the late 40s by Walter Citrine; the establishment of the modern press in Germany; a bi-party system (CDU and SPD) based on the British model; a contribution to the defence of Germany and western Europe second only to that of the US.....

David Cameron may have opened Pandora's box with this speech. Sure, he may have punched Ed Miliband a bit, but he is creating a lot of uncertainty about Britain's place in the EU and the wider world. Add to that the question of Scottish independence that comes up in 2014, which creates further uncertainty about the composition of the UK in the future. Furthermore, David Cameron is extremely vague about what powers will have to be repatriated to London, which will depend on uncertain negotiations with other EU members. The British feeling that the UK economy and its exports are hampered by too much EU regulation is just ludicrous. Germany "suffers" from the same EU regulation (or more, because it doesn't have opt-outs) , but has a successful economy and exports a lot to emerging economies, such as China and India, and also a lot to Commonwealth economies, where Britain should have a natural advantage. I think the Brits should stop moaning about the EU, the favourite scapegoat, and look at themselves a bit more.

Cameron in Portuguese resembles the word 'Camarão', as in the country Cameroon which was in fact an English and French transliteration of the name given to that part of Africa by the Portuguese because there was a river there which had quite a lot of shrimps.
All this to say that Cameron, the shrimp, can never be charismatic. Shrimps are, by their very nature, not very charismatic beings.
But when cooked well they can prove themselves to be a very tasteful dish which can serve the purpose of delighting everyone at the table.
That is the nature of the shrimp.

I pretty hypothesis however,
There are several possible origins. One is from a Gaelic-language nickname, derived from cam ("crooked", "bent") and sròn ("nose"). Another is from any of the various places called Cameron, especially such places located in Fife, Scotland.[1] Another possible origin of the Scottish placename (from which the surname is thought to be derived in some cases) is from Cambernon, in Normandy.[2] The English-language surname can be rendered into Scottish Gaelic as: Camarran[3] (masculine), Chamarran (feminine); or as Camshron[4] (masculine) and Chamshron (feminine).

Oh no, I wasn't suggesting Cameron came from the Portuguese 'Camarao' I just said it quite resembles the word. He is known as 'the shrimp', in certain circles.
Although I've heard your Brampton comes from our Brandao, and our Arnao or Arnaut comes from your Arnold.
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It befits him.
But thanks for the explanation. I know he's got quite an interesting family tree, Cameron, he's something like 7th cousin to the Queen, via an illegitimate line.

The EU is in a state of uncertainty; Cameron added not much to it, proof his unwillingnes to do a referendum at this moment.
UK is right in asking for a new european orientation, suffice to see the lack of enthusiasm in German-French relationship, right also to press for more free market, competition and openess!
After all those are europeans values that only a continental close centraliser system try to maintain and rightly so UK should refuse!

Pedro Coelho, is 'The Rabbit' (Coelho=Rabbit in Portuguese).
Rabbits are delightful creatures, wondering about the wilderness showing off their fluffy little tails.
Some dellusional people might even follow them into deep holes, in which they fall, and collapse into a world where odd creatures of wonder live.
Rabbits are likeable creatures.
But best served with rice .
I personally don't think shrimps make a good side dish for Rabbit rice.
Finally, in some parts of France, they put rabbit brains in jars. I've seen it.
That is the nature of the Rabbit.

This is an important issue for Europe. UK is free to decide its future. We need UK in EU, but UK needs more, and has more to loose. Let's negotiate, although is a dangerous game. Does UK leaders know its present dimension ini the world economy? Even Europe27 is small and fragile in global dimensions. Let's concentrate on growing the economy, industrialization, innovation and IT.

I don’t know from which country you are, but those poor souls as Singapore are know much richer than any EU country. Slowly with high investments in R&D and education, even Luxemburg will not be able to match that….

More good news. Latest poll shows that 47 percent of Danish voters want to renegotiate their relationship with the EU. In Finland the EU-skeptical True Finns are pushing above 20 percent in the polls and the elite in Finland are talking about leaving the Euro. If Britain leads the way it might trigger a mass exodus from the Brussels monster state.
If the voters in Europe wake up and realize the true nature of the EU project they would immediately reject it. Freedom and democracy is more important than technocratic benefits for large companies, strong lobbies and special interests.
I started out as EU-positive but changed my mind as I learned more about the inner workings of the EU machinery. The EU is rotten to the core, it is built on lies, double speak, and a massive deception of the European voters.

A liberal myself I would also like to have Britain in the club. But can anyone imagine say 50 years from now a United Europe with Britain as a member. Please if such a Union is difficult enough, having this Diva torpedoing every integration attempt makes it impossible. Plus look at its behaviour, the moment times are difficult they want to abandon the ship. For Europe to give in to Britain's demands would be an insult to others, such as Spain that are stoically suffering for the greater good. So this is a golden chance, they are leaving on their own will. Angela kiss them good bye. After all there is this old Spanish saying, "El que se va sin que lo echen vuele sin que lo llamen" that translates to something like this, "He who leaves without being expelled returns without being summon".

Can't wait for the day the Britons stop whining and just leave. They never wanted in in the first place. The UK's role right upon joining the Union has been to prevent further integration, so it would never become a serious competitor/threat to their American cousins, who would then keep on acting as overlords. British vision of the EU is diametrically opposed to that of most continental members (at least in the Western part). The EU was never meant to be a mere "free-trade area".

Once they leave I hope the rest of European leaders will see some sense, and close access to those pirate coves around the world called tax havens, mostly British or ex-British colonies, and to the biggest of them all, also known as the City. Our economy will thank them.

"so it would never become a serious competitor/threat to their American cousins"
After the EU's spectacular success with the single currency - euro, the Americans are indeed shaking in their boots about the new threat to their supremacy.
In fact I hear both the White House and Congress spend all their time discussing how to handle the "competition" from Europe.

How is the City a tax haven? City companies pay the same Corporate Tax Rate as those based anywhere else in Britain, a tax rate which is significantly higher than that of the Republic of Ireland. Will your future EU leaders who "see some sense" also place an embargo on the ROI?

I was rather calling it a "pirate cove", being a world magnet for dodgy funds, dodgier billionaires, and Europe's capital for the financial casino that has taken the world economy hostage.
But even if I called it a "tax haven" I would certainly not be the first one to do so, on the grounds of severe financial opacity, rather than simply its fiscal rates. It is not exactly a secret that the City offers offshore treatment to the large fortunes that seek refuge there (the United Kingdom accounts for slightly over 20 per cent of the global market for offshore financial services). But the main reason tends to be that the City acts as the neurological center for the network of tax havens constituted by British colonies spread all around the world.
The Tax Justice Network has been denouncing Britain's role as the World's central money laundry for years:http://www.secrecyjurisdictions.com/PDF/UnitedKingdom.pdf
Ireland's low taxes can certainly be considered as disloyal competition by other EU members, and I wouldn't be surprised if some action was taken to bring them more into line with the rest of the Eurozone, but that can't possibly be compared with the scale of fraud, mischief and instability brewed within the walls of Britain's capital.

Yet they are nothing compared to the fraud that is the single currency, the mischief making of the EU being hell bent to turn a blind eye to misdeeds. The black economies of southern europe are richer than the countries that they reside and have little to fear from the state.
The continent is corrupt, and yet they turn to the legal goings on in the City, how typically continental.

No you were wrong and are trying to wriggle out of it. You explicitly stated that "pirate coves" were called "tax havens". It's really very simple - the term tax haven has the word "tax" in it because tax havens levy very low rates of tax to take advantage of tax avoidance schemes. It is true that financial opacity may help with that but by itself it does not make a TAX haven, indeed it is bizarre that you have apparently adopted a definition of a tax haven that has nothing directly to do with tax rates.

I don't deny that some British territories may act as tax havens, however that is somewhat beyond our control precisely because they aren't "colonies" controlled by some sinister conspiracy, rather they set their own tax rates. It is very ironic that it is consequence of the autonomy of the dependencies that they can act as tax havens, the only real solution would be to override their local laws, definitely the far more "colonial" option. Your statements are pretty extreme with flimsy evidence, the PDF points out a lack of financial transparency and the ill effects of light-touch regulation, but hardly makes the case the City is purely a centre of fraud, as you seem to believe. As for your take on Ireland, I guess you are proud you are in the company of dictators, with your will to stamp out the "disloyalty" of being competitive and doing very well by it.

. Do not make a promise. Has Cameron actually made a promise??
.If you do make a promise - Try not to keep it. This is Albion to a T. (sorry A.)
.In Politics - Do not make a promise unless you know the outcome.

Cameron has promised nothing - and he is NOT going to keep any promises he has made.

Don't worry, Cicero, when the EU powers-that-be finally admit to the fact that the whole EU needs a thorough shake-up, and action is taken to remedy much of what is wrong with it, Germany will be among the first to benefit.

In the meantime, since you, Germany, have nothing to propose but more of the same, just sit back and let Cameron take the flak.

If you take into account the general opinion in all countries of Europe, the EU institutions, which is more the EU Parliament, are hardly known, let alone higly regarded, which makes the gamble of Cameron a big political move and a bigger democratic commitement! Indeed, if the referendum turns either way, it would signify either that the EU is about to become a "Total State", in which case UK rightly refused it, or the contrary, in which case the developement of common market, freedom etc. justified, rightly so, the UK agreement.
Cameron thus will become not only a big britton but the biggest european of this new century! Viva Evropa!

In other words, the democratic deficit that europeans citizens deplore all across the continent, is filled by the UK gamble, and could, paradoxically reinforce Europe indeed!
The necessary evolution of the EU and her need for a new direction and leadership make possible, in case of a yes for EU, such a british role! The values of liberty and democracy are after all european ones and Cameron just stick to them!
One can wonder how the Scotish problem fit in this equation?

Surely there should be 3 questions on the ballot paper 1 except the reformes which D Cameron has got from Europe 2 Leave the EU as soon a possible 3 Except the way it is and join the Euro and except further intigration . One of the things I find annoying is the lack of politicians standing up for the EU . All that seems to get covered by the papers and the news is 100 conservatives who hate the EU ,most of who have been in parliament years and seem to have done very little except moan about Europe . They mostly have very safe seats in some of the more rural and wealthy areas, maybe someone should tell them quite a few of the population rely on europe for the jobs they do . We also hear about how much we have to give the EU budget each year, yes it is a lot but we have over the years got a return on it , the word is stability . When the eastern european countries become domocracies, it would have been so easy for them to have become like the middle east is now . The promise that they would be integrated into the EU gave them somthing to aim for and gave them stability . Lastly we have not had a war in Europe for 68 years, in the last century we had 2 in 30 years so lets keep a united Europe and put up with its failings, we've certainly had to put up with our MPs failings over the last few years . Alway remember ,nothing is perfect even democracy has its flaws, our parliment being an example .